ATHENS, Greece — Flights to and from Greece were grounded, trains and ferries suspended their routes and public services were paralyzed today as angry Greeks went on strike to protest harsh new spending cuts aimed at saving their country from bankruptcy.

In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Germany's parliament to quickly pass the country's share of 110 billion euros in bailout loans aimed at keep Greece from defaulting and preventing Athens' debt crisis from becoming a wider crisis for the euro by engulfing other countries with weak finances such as Spain and Portugal.

Skepticism that the plan would accomplish that goal of preventing market contagion sent the euro below $1.30 for the first time in more than a year.

More than 20,000 people took to the streets, chanting "Athens, Brussels, listen carefully: this protest will never stop" and marching through central Athens in two demonstrations against the austerity measures Prime Minister George Papandreou announced Sunday.

The cutbacks were the price of winning help from the International Monetary Fund and the other 15 countries that use the euro. Germany, as Europe's largest economy, will provide 8.4 billion euros in 2010 and up to 14 billion more euros over 2011 and 2012 according to the plan.

"Nothing less than the future of Europe, and with that the future of Germany in Europe, is at stake," Merkel told lawmakers. "We are at a fork in the road."

Greek unions concede that the cash-strapped government was forced to increase consumer taxes and slash spending, including cutting salaries and pensions for civil servants, to secure a vital 110 billion euro three-year loan package from European partners and the International Monetary Fund.

But they say low-income Greeks will suffer disproportionately from the measures, which aim to save 30 billion euros — the country's current budget deficit — through 2012.

By Greece's usually volatile standards, union reaction so far has been relatively muted, although the country has been hit by several strikes so far this year. However, anger could increase as workers see their income slashed.